ACOUSTIC PARAMETERS OF SPEECH AS FORENSIC MARKERS FOR SPEAKERS OF PRIZREN-TIMOK DIALECT (original) (raw)

The Criminal Justice and Forensic Criminology: A Basic Rule

This research paper is aiming to provide a connected understanding of the standards and hone of measurable criminology, to diagram its esteem inside investigative and forensic purposes, and to give the essential logical and forensic methods of insight required for casework and examination in these environments. In doing so, we'll talk about the different sorts of measurable criminologists right now in hone, the sorts of examinations they perform in their measurable duties, and their proficient intuition with, and indeed reliance upon, each other. To assist resolve a few of these issues, to teach criminology and criminal justice teachers, and to donate them a device in their consistent battle to associate with the measurable disciplines on a commonsense level, the authors and contributors of this content look for fundamentally to characterize the nature and scope of the subject of Forensic Criminology. It is best conceived as the connected case research perspective of criminology and criminal equity, concerned with considering wrongdoing and criminals for the express purposes of tending to investigative and lawful issues. It also gives the basis for educating current and future measurable professionals inside the criminology and criminal justice programs that are as of now in existence. That's, as long as they start to grasp a connected, logical, and forensic perspective to their instruction. Besides our essential desire for this research, two extra objectives are come to with this content. To begin with, it gives understudies of criminology and criminal justice a presentation to the legal domain. It uncovered them to the different disciplines they will experience at work within the criminal equity framework from the viewpoint of specialists as of now within the field. It too uncovered them to the major connected forensic issues they must face and resolve no matter what way they select inside the bunch callings that include forensic criminology. Instead of being fundamentally a content full of hypothesis, it viably bridges the world of common criminology with the connected the criminal justice framework. Moment, this content will eventually serve as a career direct for understudies of criminology and criminal justice.

The Contribution of Forensic Science to Establishing the Truth in Criminal Proceedings

ATHENS JOURNAL OF LAW, 2019

This article is intended to highlight, on the one hand, the role played by forensic science (forensics) among criminal sciences in Romania, and, on the other hand, to present the specifics of forensic science in order to delineate it from other related sciences. Through an interdisciplinary approach, taking into account the fact that forensic technique, forensic tactics and, last but not least, forensic methodology serve the finding of truth in a criminal case, as well as the prevention and/or combating of deeds provided by criminal law, we will emphasise its autonomous nature in relation to other sciences, although the aims of sciences in the field of criminal sciences are common. The delineation of forensic activities from activities specific to other disciplines is essential for the substantiation of criminal policies, for drafting amendments of criminal legislation, putting forward proposals for best interinstitutional/intrainstitutional practices, especially when investigation is carried out by joint teams, and sometimes for transnational crimes.

(2017) Forensic Communication in Theory and Practice

Forensic linguistics is a discipline that concerns General Linguistics, in particular Applied Linguistics and Forensic Science. Today, it is an autonomous discipline with its own methodology and it can regard any text, written, recorded or produced orally, that is somehow involved in a legal proceeding or in a criminal context. “Literally any text or item of spoken language has the potential of being a forensic text” (Olsson 2008, 1). The forensic linguistics expert who analyses recorded spontaneous speech needs a number of different skills across several disciplines (Chaski 1998, 2001a, 2001b): Phonetics and phonology, necessary for the study of the articulatory sound system of human speech, the sound inventory which characterizes a language or a dialect and the rules that govern the adjustments and changes that occur in spontaneous speech1; Morphology, to study the smallest units of language with meaning, the organization and the study of the internal structure of words; Syntax, to be aware of the rules that govern the internal structure of sentences, how words can be combined to create linguistically acceptable sentences; 1 In a recent court case, the non-competence of linguistics, phonetics and phonology on the part of a consultant to the Public Prosecutor led to a recording in South American Spanish being confused with one in Iberian Spanish and the subsequent arrest of an innocent party (pp 10061/11, against Oscar Sanchez, the Court of Appeal, 7th Criminal Division, Court of Naples). Chapter Three 48 Semantics, the study of meaning, the relationship between the meaning of (single) words and the meaning of (complete) sentences; Pragmatics, necessary to understand the use of language during a normal conversation and in all types of interactions and dialogue; Historical Linguistics, to study the evolution of a language and what the possible and predictable changes may be; Sociolinguistics, for the language used by a speech community, the study of the variables characterizing the language analyzed, focusing on differences of religion, social class, educational levels, gender, place of residence (city versus countryside, mountains versus coast), the interaction and interference between different languages and between language and dialect, and mixed-language production; Dialectology, to ensure a correct identification of dialects, local variables, regional dialects and their borders, the identification of isoglosses or isophones; Dialectometry, to study the distances between dialects and their internal regularity; Psycholinguistics, to understand how psychological and mental systems work in a human language; Neurolinguistics, to study the human nervous system and the neuroanatomical functioning of the brain; Computational Linguistics or Computer Science, to be able to use software and tools that help the expert during the analysis of the language and performance of individual speakers; Statistics, to analyse the results of a linguistic analysis, describe the phenomena and provide objective answers; Phonetics and Acoustic Signal analysis, to conduct an acoustic analysis of sounds, identify characteristic features, filter noisy signals, identify anonymous speakers, support the transcription of sound signals with low quality (Romito 2000); and, Law, to act in accordance with the procedural rules. The definition in The Routledge Encyclopaedia of Linguistics (2010) reports that “forensic linguistics helps courts to answer three questions about a text—what does it say, what does it mean and who wrote, typed or authored it?”—confirming the initial interest in the written text. The first study was made in 1930 (second edition Bryant 1962) and analysed the function of words in legal language. Forensic linguistics was first used in a courtroom to gather evidence in 1968, when Jan Svartvik (Svarvtik 1968) showed in The statements: a case for Forensic Linguistics how style and grammar could be measured, and thus become elements of evidence in a court case (Fitzgerald 2004). This court case and especially A Training Program for Expert Forensic Transcribers 49 the publication of Svartvik are seen as the birth of a new discipline that came to the attention of the world with the arrest of the Unabomber in 1996 in the woods of Montana2. The first analyses, therefore, took place on written texts. Nowadays, with the development of telecommunications, there has been an increase in analyses conducted on acoustic recordings rather than on written declarations. The analyses that can be carried out on recorded sounds are: the identification of a sound or a noise; the determination of the originality or authenticity of the tape, support or recording; speech signal filtering; noise reduction or emphasis of a voice and, in general, an increase in intelligibility; the identification of an altered voice; speaker characterization; a comparison and perceptual comparison of two voices; speaker identification by objective methods; the transcription of interceptions and analysis of meaning in relation to noisy recordings. Unfortunately, forensic linguistics or phonetics does not exist as a teaching course in Italian universities. It is impossible, therefore, to establish whether it concerns Criminalistics, Investigative Science or Applied Linguistics or even Human Sciences, as is the case in other countries. Furthermore, academic scientific research on issues related to Forensic Linguistics does not stimulate great interest. The enthusiasm registered in the US and the UK has gradually faded in Italy after an initial surge in the 1970s and 1980s. Experts do not cooperate with each other and they tend to be graduates, accountants, engineers, linguists, sound engineers, doctors and so on. A similar task has never been given to people coming from such diverse academic paths and backgrounds (Romito 2010; Romito and Galatà 2008; Romito et al. 2008). We believe that only an appropriate training course could develop competence and increase the confidence of judges towards this discipline.

Book Review: The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics

Australian Review of Applied Linguistics Vol 34, No 1 (2011) pp. 108-111

The Routledge Handbook of Forensic Linguistics deals with the most recent and prominent discussions, debates, topics, research approaches and methodologies utilized in Forensic Linguistics, a discipline concerned with the study of language and the law. The editors commence the volume with a broad introduction to the field, and a clear outline of the purpose and structure of the book, followed by a compilation of thirty-seven original chapters by contributors from a wide range of professions and a range of different countries. The stated aim of the volume is to provide a handbook, not a textbook; as such it aims to be "a comprehensive advanced introduction to core issues and topics in contemporary forensic linguistics" (p. 2), as well as a specific resource for undergraduates or postgraduates new to the area.

Principles of Relevancy And Admissibility under the Indian Law of Evidence.

International Journal of Engineering Technology Research & Management, 2017

Relevancy and admissibility are two popular concepts of the Indian Evidence Act, 1872. For literal and common understanding both appear as same. However, principles of evidence attach different meanings and have different objectives underneath the concepts. The author here tries to elucidate the concepts with cases laws, for the beginners of laws.

Forensic assessment may be based on common sense assumptions rather than science

International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2020

Forensic assessments must be scientifically founded, because courts should obtain expert evidence with acceptable evidential value. In Slovenia, professional guidelines of forensic personality assessment are too general and not always in line with international professional recommendations. Thus, experts have no strict guidelines which would lead them to scientifically grounded expert opinions. The aim of the research was to establish which tests are employed in forensic assessment in Slovenia and to what extent the professional guidelines for expert opinions are followed. A total of 166 forensic personality assessments were reviewed, representing the majority of expert opinions issued in the period 2003-2018. The results of the analysis revealed that questionable projective tests are most commonly used. Typically, an expert opinion was rendered based on two tests, at least one of which was projective. What is more, expert opinions did not include hypotheses, in-text citations, reference lists, or proof of the expert witness's competence. The tests and their results were mentioned briefly and inadequately, without mention of their reliability and validity. Possible malingering of the person being evaluated was not detected. Professional guidelines were not followed and non-standardized tests without normative values and of questionable scientific merit were predominantly used, despite lack of proof that they truly measure what they claim to be measuring. These findings significantly differ from the results of similar research, raising serious concerns over the credibility of expert opinions in Slovenia.

The principle of immediacy as a method of examination of evidence in criminal proceedings.pdf

The article notes the methodological importance of the principle of immediacy for establishing the actual factual circumstances of a criminal case in a court proceeding. The principle of immediacy from the indicated point of view is considered, in particular, in relation to the principle of adversariality. These two principles organise examination of evidence in a court proceeding and ensure the resolution of the criminal case on the merits, but their functional role in this process is different. Accordingly, one can not reduce the principle of immediacy to one of the manifestations of adversariality. Examination of evidence is defined as a technology of working with evidence set by the tasks and conditions of the criminal trial stage. Its main content is the combination of verification and preliminary assessment of evidence implemented within a specific criminal procedure, taking into account its characteristics. The purpose, scope, nature and content of examination of evidence differ at different stages of the criminal procedure and in different criminal proceedings. The methodological nature of the principle of immediacy makes it possible to express its content through a formula in the form of a question series: who examines, why, where and how one examines, what is examined, and how the results of examination should be taken into account. The content of the principle of immediacy, with all its methodological significance, is revealed through the subjecttarget, technology and subject-matter aspects of immediacy. The subject-target aspect of the principle of immediacy gives answers to questions about who and why examines the evidence in the trial. It is expressed in the fact that examination of evidence for the purpose of resolving a criminal case on the merits is made by the court. The second aspect of the principle of immediacy answers the questions of where and how evidence is examined, and thus it can be defined as a technology aspect. The rules that form this aspect of the principle of immediacy are, firstly, the personal perception of evidence by the judges resolving the case on the merits, and, secondly, the involvement in the court proceeding of all participants who may challenge the evidence relevant to the case. The third, subject-matter, side of the principle of immediacy answers the questions of what is examined and how the results of examination should be taken into account. The subject matter of the principle of immediacy determines the duties of the court, firstly, to investigate the evidence directly related to the facts to be proved, that is, the evidence from the original sources, and, secondly, to base the sentence on the evidence that was examined in the court proceeding only